i run the latest ubuntu 13.04 with kernel 10rc5 on an old cr-48 chromebook. now it does have 2gb of ram but its a single core atom and ubuntu kicks ass on it, runs much better than 11 or 12 did on the same laptop.

i would say give 13.04 a try and maybe try an updated kernel as that has helped out a lot

though you will run into trouble with compiling on that small amount of ram. got any friends or family with an older pc that you could scavenge ram from?

i run the latest ubuntu 13.04 with kernel 10rc5 on an old cr-48 chromebook. now it does have 2gb of ram but its a single core atom and ubuntu kicks ass on it, runs much better than 11 or 12 did on the same laptop.

i would say give 13.04 a try and maybe try an updated kernel as that has helped out a lot

though you will run into trouble with compiling on that small amount of ram. got any friends or family with an older pc that you could scavenge ram from?

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ok , how to update kernel and is there a major difference btw lts and normal version?

any of the ubuntu and derivatives pretty much hold your hand the whole way through, pretty much use defaults and you will be fine.

also, the difference between LTS and latest build is just the length of support and bug fixes..

to be honest, i've not found any bugs in the latest and instead of worrying about how long your support is, just upgrade when there is a new version, 13.10 is shaping up to be very nice and they will keep supporting the latest out there

i would take Lubuntu as Distro for older PC´s , Lubuntu is a lightweight Ubuntu and performs pretty good on older Hardware due minimal Desktop LXDE
and to setup few PC´s with same config , take a look @ preseeding.

my intention would be:
Download Lubuntu Minimal
prepare a USB stick with UNetbootin point to lubuntu minimal ISO
create a preseed file for the System & Package Config on stick root

i would take Lubuntu as Distro for older PC´s , Lubuntu is a lightweight Ubuntu and performs pretty good on older Hardware due minimal Desktop LXDE
and to setup few PC´s with same config , take a look @ preseeding.

my intention would be:
Download Lubuntu Minimal
prepare a USB stick with UNetbootin point to lubuntu minimal ISO
create a preseed file for the System & Package Config on stick root

Your system specs are fine for just about any linux distro. The slowdown you're facing is probably because of the new desktop/window manager. You can switch back to good old gnome classic and tweak some settings for better performance. Excessive swap space doesn't make any system faster. Swap is not meant for speed at all. When you run out of RAM, your HDD space is utilized as a way to get going. It is very slow, since HDD is the slowest component in the PC. With 512MB RAM, the swap should be around 750MB - 1GB. And I would recommend ext 4 as the filesystem, and not ext 3. System slowdown can also be caused if you run out of space on your hdd. So do a quick reading about the installation process and requirements etc. Ubuntu's documentation is massive as well as very easy. Lastly, I would recommend eclipse. If you need REAL TIME help with your installation or anything else, you should seek help via IRC (on freenode, #ubuntu). Opera has built-in irc client, firefox can use extentions like chatzilla. On Ubuntu desktop you may want to use x-chat. Ubuntu forums is also a much better place to discuss ubuntu-specific matters, imho...

P.S.
Do keep an eye on the system processes and the resource usage. You should disable every service that you don't need. Many services can be real resource hog.

There is not much difference between xubuntu and lubuntu.
I want to give xubuntu a try first , then i will go for lubuntu if need be.I have only been provided with three PCs to test with, if i am successful then i will be aksed to do whole lab.

There is not much difference between xubuntu and lubuntu.
I want to give xubuntu a try first , then i will go for lubuntu if need be.I have only been provided with three PCs to test with, if i am successful then i will be aksed to do whole lab.

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You may also use Oracle Virtualbox (absolutely free) to try out any distro to get a feel for it and to avoid any nasty surprises. BTW, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu etc etc are basically all the same, having all been derived from Ubuntu. They are just aimed at people with different sys power mostly, with the graphical part being the major difference. In order to truly assess the difference, you should compare detailed resource usages - preferably with printed charts.

There is not much difference between xubuntu and lubuntu.
I want to give xubuntu a try first , then i will go for lubuntu if need be.I have only been provided with three PCs to test with, if i am successful then i will be aksed to do whole lab.

Click to expand...

if you need to do the whole lab get into preseeding ! for future install you should think about pxe´ng the lab , 50 clients in ~30 mins (Gbe) in one shot
and may use local mirror for updates/install to save bandwidth